Three years after fire, church rekindles

BEAVER FALLS — The fire that ravaged the Otterbein United Methodist Church in Beaver Falls three Octobers ago wasn’t a godsend.

It is now.

That night, longtime members Quina Price of Big Beaver and Gloria Parsons of Beaver Falls stood helpless and heartbroken on Seventh Avenue and watched flames destroy the century-old brick building.

Two Sundays ago, on the third anniversary of the fire, they stood on the empty lot and celebrated the birth of a new community-oriented ministry, much different, and aptly named Ashes to Life.

The fire, they said, kindled a willingness to change among most of the two dozen Otterbein members.

“It (the fire) was really a blessing in disguise,” Price said.

“We found out through the three years that the church is not the building. The church is the people,” Parsons said.

For now, the Ashes to Life ministry has no building to call its own. It has some 40 members, many from the Otterbein congregation and others who are people in recovery from alcoholism, drugs and other addictions. Together, they worship in a contemporary service led by Pastor Mark Ongley.

On the brink

Before the fire, Otterbein United Methodist Church had been gasping for breath, financially on the brink of closing, possibly within a year, Ongley learned after his arrival in Beaver Falls in July 2009.

He’d come from Somerset to pastor part-time to three small Methodist congregations in the city — at Central United Methodist Church, Otterbein and First United Methodist Church, where the Ashes to Life services now take place in the church’s chapel.

Immediately after the fire, the Otterbein congregation wanted to rebuild. A fire insurance policy, Ongley said, would provide sufficient money to rebuild, if necessary.

But, “The bishop was reluctant to have a church that was just about to die put in a brand new building,” Ongley said. He asked the Otterbein congregation to assess their needs and the community’s. A merger with First United, which Ongley initially supported, never grew from the planning stages, the pastor said.

“These three years have been a wilderness experience for them. But I continued to say to them that it didn’t make sense to rebuild unless you have a vital ministry going on,” Ongley said.

The pastor was laying the foundation for one. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings that were open to the public. In time, he noticed that several people at the in AA meetings were also attending church services.

In September 2010, Ongley started a Sunday night worship service called Crossroads to Recovery in the small, less formal chapel at First United.

Dress was casual, the service contemporary, the music upbeat. Otterbein members, including Parsons and Price, began attending the service that started with worship followed by teaching and prayer.

This past spring, Otterbein members again began asking, “What are we going to do?”

Become a vital congregation, Ongley told them. To do so, he recommended several changes: rename the church; have a contemporary worship service; meet in small groups during the week; and focus outwardly into the community.

“To my surprise they voted unanimously to all four things,” Ongley said.

In June, Otterbein’s administrative board held a church-naming contest.

There was resistance from some Otterbein members, said Price, who had worshiped at Otterbein for 33 years.

“There still is. Change is hard, but I think that people are coming around,” she said, adding that the memories at Otterbein will always be a part of them.

“We’re stepping out of the traditional type of services. We’re putting ourselves out on the streets and seeing what (people’s) needs are. We want to show people who have been hurt, and disillusioned that God is still there and working mightily in the city of Beaver Falls,” Price said.

Everybody has monkeys

Janice Warren of Beaver Falls said she has a monkey on her back. It’s a heroin addiction that the 26-year-old, four months into recovery, said she continues to battle with the help of Ongley, Ashes to Life and God.

Warren’s heard Ongley talk about monkeys. “All God’s children got monkeys.” It’s his tag phrase. He used it often at the Crossroads services that ended with the start of Ashes to Life. The pastor still turns the phrase now.

“I love that ‘cause everybody does. If it’s not an addiction, it’s other things like shopping or people-pleasing. That’s his (Ongley’s) monkey,” Warren said.

“I wanted everyone to see that we’re all in recovery,” Ongley said. “I think that we have to develop the concept that everybody has issues. For me it was people pleasing. For others it’s perfectionism, eating issues. We all need to be on the road to recovery. We all need God’s help to overcome our issues,” the pastor said.

That’s what the mission of Ashes to Life is, Ongley said: “To be a church where the last, the least and the lost can find hope, healing and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.”

Whether Ashes to Life will build a new energy-efficient building, rent space or buy and remodel an existing building in the city probably won’t be decided until spring, Ongley said.

Until then, the contemporary service is at 9:45 a.m. every Sunday at in the chapel at First United.

More information is available online at www.ashestolife.org and on facebook.com/ashes to life

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